August 18, 2010

A Little Imagination Goes a Long Way - Creating a New Family Treasures

When my mother passed away last year, my brother and I cleared out her apartment. We were rushed and I brought home items that we hadn't taken the time to open that day. When I opened a small box a few months later, I found a dozen or so loose gemstones. Nothing valuable, some were coloured glass, and four were topaz.

I wasn't sure what on earth to do with them. They weren't valuable except obviously they meant something to my mom. While they could be kept, the odds that anyone would treasure them and pass them on through the generations as a memento of my mother were slim.

Then my niece said she had an idea. She took the gems to a friend of hers and had custom pieces of jewellery made from them.

My niece just sent me some photos of what she had made and I'm so impressed I wanted to share the photos with others.

It was very creative of my niece to think of this, and a wonderful way to pass those gemstones on to others who will hopefully think of my mother when they wear them.

So loose gemstones that would have been lost over time have now been transformed into beautiful jewellery that can be worn and passed on as a family memory of my mother.

Thank you Risa for your great idea! Enjoy your gorgeous jewellery made from stones that belonged to Grandma Joan.

New!

Death Finds a Way: A Janie Riley Mystery by Lorine McGinnis SchulzeJanie Riley is an avid genealogist with a habit of stumbling on to dead bodies. She and her husband head to Salt Lake City Utah to research Janie's elusive 4th great-grandmother. But her search into the past leads her to a dark secret. Can she solve the mysteries of the past and the present before disaster strikes?

I'm an incurable collector of
antiques, an avid genealogist and a messy but creative cook! I blog, i write history and genealogy books. My main genealogy website is Olive Tree Genealogy http://olivetreegenealogy.com/

Lorine is the author of many published genealogical and historical
articles and books available at
http://LorineSchulze.com